The subject matter described herein relates generally to inspections and more particularly to methods and systems for placement of inspection sensors.
Known aircraft generally undergo routine inspection of various components. Numerous aircraft components typically are inspected, and the equipment used to perform such inspections can vary from component to component depending, for example, on the component type and/or location. Inspecting at least some components may be difficult because of various spatial restrictions. For example, access to at least some components may require disassembly of at least one occluding structure and/or removal of the component prior to inspection. Inspecting such components may be a tedious and time-consuming task.
To facilitate inspection of at least some of such components, articulated robot manipulator arms have been used to position inspection sensors within at least some limited access areas. Such articulated robot manipulator arms facilitate avoiding disassembly of portions of the aircraft in connection with performing inspections. Due to joint and link flexibility and high-degrees of freedom of such robot manipulator arms, accurate, real-time positioning and orientation tracking of such robot manipulator arms can be difficult. Further, positioning errors may build up the further down a chain of articulated segments a location is from a base. As such, the position of the end effector, i.e., the location of an inspection sensor, generally has the largest errors.